The Sight Seer (13 page)

He jumped off the couch, grabbin
g the remote to shut off the TV before all but hurling it back on the table. I flinched. I needed to back off.

I stood, the kitten protesting as I moved it off my lap, and held out my hands.
“Rafe—”

“My parents are dead, Gabi,” Rafe growled.
His green eyes were flashing with anger and I unconsciously took a step backwards. “They’re dead because I
killed
them.”

Chapter
Twenty-four

I gaped at Rafe, unsure if I had heard him correctly. When he remained silent, I blurted out, “But that’s…I mean—were they demons?”

“No!” he snapped.
“They were
killed
by demons. Demons I failed to See because I don’t have the Sight!”

My breath came out in a loud whoosh.
For a second I had thought something awful.

“I’m sorry,” he said
miserably, staring at the ground. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that.”

“No, I think I deserved it, for prying into things that are none of my business.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, squeezing myself tightly. “I thought whatever you had gone through compared to what I had gone through with my mom.” I let out a humorless laugh. “I’m such a bitch.”

He looked up quickly.
“You are not!”

“Oh yeah?
Then how come you’re feeling so awful right now? Because of me, Rafe!” I pointed to myself, eyes burning with unshed tears.

His eyes widened when he saw how upset I was.
“No, no.” He ran a hand through his hair, sighing quietly. “Look, let’s sit down, alright?” I complied, and the kitten found its way into my lap once more. It was oddly comforting, having that warm, purring body so close to mine. Rafe sat in the recliner and crossed his legs before speaking again. “I always told myself that if you ever asked about my parents, I would tell you the truth.” He smiled bitterly. “But in the back of my head I pretended that you would never ask, and I would be safe. But you deserve to know, especially after telling me about your mom, so…”

He trailed off, staring deeply into space.
I wondered if he was going back in time, to when his parents were still alive. Were they a happy family? I decided to keep my questions to myself and let Rafe tell the whole story without interruption.

“My parents were hunters, as were their parents before them and their parents before them.
It’s very common for two hunters to marry; this pretty much guarantees that their kids will be hunters as well. Any special traits that the parents have will be passed down to their children, as well.” Rafe clenched his jaw. “Except with me. They didn’t realize I didn’t possess the Sight at first. But when I started training, I would always fail to identify the demon until after it showed its true form. At first they thought I was fooling around, but when it became obvious I didn’t have the Sight…”

He uncrossed his legs and leaned forward in his seat, resting his arms on his legs.
“Everyone in the organization said I should cease training immediately.”

“But you’re so good!” I said, despite my resolve to stay quiet.

Rafe smiled grimly. “Thanks. But that’s only because I’ve worked hard, every day of my life, to get to the level I’m at now. Despite that, it was
still
hard to convince everyone. Even my parents.” He shook his head. “Well, my mom was okay with me being a hunter after she saw I could handle myself in the field, but my dad was dead set against it. He was a bit of an ass.”

I raised my eyebrows.
I don’t think I could talk about my dad that way if he was, well, you know, dead. Then again, I had thought very nasty things about Mom, but that was only because she made the decision to leave us. But looking at Rafe, and the slight smile that touched his eyes, I realized he was actually being affectionate.

“For Dad, everything was about the organization and killing demons.
You think I’m obsessed? You should have seen him. I don’t know how he slowed down long enough to get married and have me; apparently he was out hunting the night Mom was in labor.” Rafe shrugged. “And of course he was excited to have a son, and wanted to train me before I even got out of diapers. Mom put her foot down at that, though, and made him wait until I was four.”

“That long?” I asked sarcastically.

He shrugged again. “To him it was forever. But that’s how he was. You can’t fault him for it; he really was one of the best there ever was.” Rafe stopped to rub his injured arm. “So when he discovered he had a son without the Sight? Forget it.”

“But what happened?
Obviously you won and continued training, right?”

“Yeah.
I obsessively trained, and I ended up getting the best times and results in the competitions. I pissed off a lot of hunters too, since they all thought I was handicapped or damaged or whatever.” Rafe made no effort to hide his disgust and I couldn’t help but agree. These hunters sounded like an elitist bunch of morons. Well, minus Rafe and Evan. I hoped I never met any of them; what would they say about me, a non-hunter who possessed the Sight? They’d probably call me a waste of talent. Or they’d want to use me, like Evan warned. I shuddered, and Rafe noticed. “Don’t worry,” he said. “They hate me so much, and Evan by default for being my friend, that they never bother us. They just send us our monthly allowances and Silver Moon updates. They don’t even expect us to report in, although I still do once a month. They’re not all bad, you know. Most of my classmates were jerks, yes, but not everyone was that terrible.”

“Which is why you’re still an acting member.”

“Exactly. I still believe in what they do, and I’ll continue hunting until I physically can’t.”

Hopefully he meant because he was too old to wield
a sword and not something else.

Rafe’s face grew troubled again, and I knew he was about to discuss his parents’ deaths.
Getting up, he started pacing the small living room. I watched as he struggled to put this tragedy into words, his body tense with misery and my heart aching for him.

“It happened when I was twelve.
I was on assignment with my parents; another member had discovered a nest of demons and we were scouting it.”

“Nest?” I asked.
“Do you mean they live together?”

Rafe looked grim.
“Exactly. It doesn’t happen often, but if a powerful sorcerer summons multiple demons, he or she uses the entire group to do something big.” I was afraid to ask what he meant by big, but I imagined the worst. “Once someone finds a nest, we work to eliminate it as quickly as possible. That day, my parents and I were just investigating it, to confirm the other member’s report.” He laughed darkly at that. “My dad wasn’t happy about that; he wanted to charge in and kill them all. If Mom wasn’t there, I think he would have, too.”

“With you?”
I was astonished.

“Yeah, but I imagine he wouldn’t have left many demons for me to finish off.”

“Wow.”

“
He was incredibly headstrong and confident.” Rafe shook his head. “Don’t get me wrong; he probably would have managed to eradicate the entire nest by himself. That’s how good he was. If I hadn’t screwed up, then maybe he would have had the chance to…”

Rafe walked over to the bookshelves and picked up a framed picture, tilting it towards the light to better study it before
handing it to me. “My parents.”

Three people posed in the photograph
. The little boy was obviously Rafe; his green eyes were sparkling with laughter as he gave the camera a big smile. His hair was cut shorter back then, with a part down the middle. He was maybe seven or eight when the picture was taken. A Hispanic woman with bronze colored skin was leaning over his right shoulder wearing the same smile as Rafe; she had long, straight brown hair and pretty brown eyes. There was color in her cheeks and she looked happy. Rafe’s father, on the other hand, was staring grimly at the camera. It was obvious Rafe had inherited his features from his father; they shared the same green eyes and thick, wavy hair, and the same attractive features.
But he would look a lot more handsome if he smiled,
I thought.

“Yeah, he never smiled,” Rafe said, reading my thoughts.
“Except when he was in the middle of a fight. Then he was having the time of his life. I swear that was the only time I heard him laugh.” He sat down next to me, reaching out to pet the kitten in my lap. The cat raised its head and gave a sleepy yawn before going back to sleep. A ghost of a smile flittered across Rafe’s lips. “It was so stupid, how they died. I—” His voice cracked. On impulse I reached out to place my hand on top of his. We both froze, looking at our hands, but then he turned his over and our fingers entwined. His hand was warm, his touch gentle as he held my fingers between his. Feeling myself blush, I kept my gaze locked on our hands. I don’t know what would happen if I looked up and found those green eyes staring at me intently.

He gave my fingers a gentle squeeze (which made my stomach flip-flop) before continuing.
“The demons must have found out we were spying on them. To this day, I don’t know how they figured that out. We were so careful! We had holed up in an apartment across the street to keep watch on their comings and goings so we could get an idea of how many demons were in there. We had already seen a few, but Dad believed there were even more. Organization members had been visiting us throughout the day as well, and we thought nothing of it. Why would we, right? The only ones who knew we were there were part of Silver Moon. Or so we thought.” Rafe let out a slow breath, and this time I was the one who squeezed his hand. He nodded once, to himself or me, I wasn’t sure, but it gave him the courage to keep going. “So when someone knocked on the door, Dad sent me to answer it, the same as I had been doing all day. A normal-looking guy was there, and I waved him in. I didn’t recognize him, but I didn’t know
all
of the members. After he walked in to the apartment, I saw something in the hallway, so I stepped out to investigate.”

             
He shook his head. “I don’t know what I was trying to do. Maybe I thought I’d stumbled across a demon, and I would slay it on my own so Dad would give me that smile he saved for when he was fighting. I thought I would make him proud, but of course, now that I’m older, I see that he never would have allowed me on this scouting mission if he didn’t think I was ready for it. So I didn’t have to prove anything, after all.

“I had taken five steps into the hallway when I heard my mom
scream. Rushing back in, I saw—” Swallowing hard, Rafe squeezed his eyes shut. “The guy I had let in was stabbing my dad through the back with a massive sword. A sword I know he wasn’t carrying when I let him in. Before I could do anything, he yanked the sword out of Dad and slashed Mom across the chest. They both crumpled to the floor, their blood mixing together into this giant, red puddle. I had never seen so much blood in my life, and all I could do was stand there as it slowly drained out of them. Then the guy turned to me, and I realized he was actually a demon.” His voice was shaking, but still he went on. “I let a demon into the room because I couldn’t See him, and he killed my parents because of
me
.” His green eyes shone with unshed tears as he stopped to take a few steadying breaths.

“It’s not your fault!” I insisted, hating that he was blaming
himself for something that was clearly
not
his fault. “Rafe, you didn’t kill them, the demon did!”

His shook his head rapidly.
“Their blood is on my hands! If I had had the Sight, I never would have let the damn thing in! I would have called out a warning to Dad and he would have slayed the demon before it could stab him in the back! Instead, it walked in, killed both of my parents, and then walked past me with a cruel smile on its face as it patted me on the shoulder.”

I shuddered.
“It
left
?”

“Yes, and even though I’ve been searching for it ever since, I’ve never been able to find it,” Rafe said, his eyes flashing with anger.
“I hope that means that the bastard is dead, but I just know it’s still out there.” He rubbed his chest, right over his heart. “I know in here that it’s still alive, and I can’t rest until its dead.”

“Okay, fine, I get the revenge thing, but you
cannot
blame yourself for their deaths,” I insisted.

He unclasped our hands to run his through his hair.
“Don’t you see, Gabi? I was too arrogant, too proud. I should have given up when we discovered I didn’t have the Sight! I have no right to call myself a hunter, not when I lack the most important ability! I could train for a thousand years, but I’ll never gain the Sight!” He pounded his fists on his thighs, then winced and grabbed his injured his arm. “I should never have joined Silver Moon! My parents would still be alive, and that’s all that matters.”

“But what about all the people you’ve saved?” I implored.
“What about me, Rafe? You saved my life that night because you’re a hunter. Doesn’t that mean anything?”

“Of course it does
,” he said softly. “It’s just…why couldn’t I have saved them?” He looked away, his jaw trembling as he fought to control himself.

I felt
tears forming in my eyes as I sat there, helpless to do anything.
He’s been blaming himself all this time for something that wasn’t his fault.
I reached for him, but dropped my hand when I realized a simple touch wouldn’t comfort him in the slightest. The only thing that could fix his despair was the one thing I couldn’t give him: his parents back, alive.